I-PASS glut spurs fears of backups

Officials worry of choked lanes

I-PASS transponders are flying off the shelves and toll road officials are hoping their popularity won't prevent motorists from sailing through the electronic toll collection lanes.

In recent weeks, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority has changed automatic lanes to I-PASS-only lanes at four plazas on the Tri-State Tollway to meet demand and live up to the billing that I-PASS enables drivers to "dash through the tolls."

"There's a few hot spots, and we are looking at seeing what we can do to relieve them," tollway spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon said Thursday. "We are going to stay on top of it and make sure it's to your advantage to have I-PASS."

The tollway converted the lanes in response to surging I-PASS sales spurred by car drivers seeking to avoid a toll increase Jan. 1. That day, a typical toll will jump to 80 cents from 40 cents for car drivers who don't have I-PASS. Those who have the electronic toll-collection transponder will not have to pay more.

The popularity of I-PASS has increased the overall usage rate to 57 percent, compared with 41 percent of rush-hour motorists a year ago. During morning rush hour, the numbers top 60 percent, according to Jack Hartman, the agency's executive director.

Likewise, the number of vehicles using I-PASS-only lanes has increased noticeably. During rush hour, I-PASS lines can back up at some plazas, much as they do for automatic or manual lanes.

The problem should be solved when plazas are converted to barrier-free lanes, tollway officials said. The new plazas will have as many as four I-PASS-only lanes in each direction and motorists will be allowed to drive through at 55 m.p.h. The agency will replace nine of its 20 plazas with open-road tolling next year.

In the meantime, the agency has assembled a team to look at I-PASS usage and traffic volume at every plaza to accommodate demand, Hartman said.

The team's analysis prompted the addition of I-PASS-only lanes at the Tri-State plazas in recent weeks, he said. Additional I-PASS-only lanes could be added at Boughton Road and Army Trail Road Plazas on the North-South Tollway.

When traffic is backed up, tollway officials encouraged I-PASS users to use automatic or manual lanes. Even though I-PASS customers must stop and wait for a gate to rise in those lanes, they still can move through faster than those paying with cash.

The tollway authority also awarded a $136 million contract to Walsh Construction and K-Five Construction to widen and reconstruct a 3.6-mile stretch of the southern Tri-State.

The board approved the contract even though tollway officials determined the firms that Walsh and K-Five would use to meet the tollway's 10 percent minority-contracting goal are not disadvantaged business enterprises. The minority- or female-owned firms' net worth has reached a level no longer considered disadvantaged, officials said.

The construction firms must find other businesses, said Hartman, noting that the same issue arose with the $25.4 million land-clearing contract awarded to T.J. Lambrecht Construction Inc. last month.

"Some of them are doing it based on prior relationships," he said. "They do a job like this, they always have the same DBE. And this time, the guy graduated [from the program] so they can't use them anymore. They've got to find someone else."